Disasters - a growing problem around the world.It's a fact - disasters are on the rise around the world. According to one estimate, the 1990s saw a tripling of disasters and a nine-fold increase in economic costs when compared with the 1960s. Climate change,earthquake,floods,storm increasing concentrations of people in vulnerable areas, and political and economic instability are all contributing factors.
The challenge is - how do we deal with this growing dilemma?

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Drenched Tuesday: Mumbaikars' Rain-Related Woes May Be Far From Over As Met Dept Predicts More Showers Today

Mumbai was once again soaked and water-logged on Tuesday as incessant rains coincided with high tide. The city may not get a respite from the wet spell any time soon as the meteorological department has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over the next 60 hours. Till 8.30pm on Tuesday, Colaba had recorded 84.6mm of rainfall whereas Santa Cruz got 142.2mm. Other areas in the city that received heavier rainfall in 12 hours included Bhan dup; it topped the list at 151.7mm. Wadala at 140.2 mm, Kurla 133.9mm, Dadar 132.9mm and Bandra 132.6mm followed closely. The average rainfall received by the island city was 96mm in the 12-hour period. The eastern suburbs recorded 108mm whereas western suburbs received 88mm in the same period. What added to the woes as tide as high as 4.88 metres at 12:48pm, which led to water-logging. Mumbai has already seen about 10 days of heavy to very heavy rainfall this season. According to the Indian Meteorological Department, multiple climatic conditions have been contributing to the current spell of downpour. "In the past four days, there have been very strong pressure gradients over the west coast," said V K Rajeev, director of weather forecast at IMD, Mumbai. The pressure gradient is a physical quantity that describes which direction and at what rate the pressure changes most rapidly around a particular location. "These pressure gradients have caused very strong westerly winds. Moreover, a low pressure area has formed over Bay of Bengal, which has further strengthened the westerly winds. The winds, in turn, are responsible for heavy rainfall in the region," said Rajeev. According to the weather bureau, heavy rainfall is likely at a few places, while very heavy rainfall can be expected at isolated pl a ces over the Konkan and Goa region (including Greater Mumbai) in the next 60 hours. "Though we have given a heavy rainfall warning for the next 60 hours, we do keep revising the forecast every 12 hours," said Rajeev. On Wednesday, Mumbaikars may face another round of water-logging. The tide levels are going to be 4.95-metre high at 1:27pm. If it rains heavily in the morning, low-lying areas may flood once again. Doppler radar on the blink for 4 hrs The Doppler weather radar remained non-operational on Tuesday afternoon for more than two hours due to "technical issues". This is the first monsoon since the radar was installed. Civic officials manning the BMC's disaster control room said the web site that gives out realtime radar data remained offline for at least four hours. S G Kamble, director of the Doppler weather radar in IMD, admitted the radar was not functional between 2:30pm and 5pm, after which the defect was rectified. "During the time the radar was not functional, it wasn't giving any observations. But we have many other ways to get observations, based on which the weather can be predicted." Before the radar, the met used satellite pictures and numerical weather prediction. The radar forecasts the height of clouds, direction, speed and intensity of rains. TNN